Internal

detection

Today we released version 2 of our Simple Conficker Scanner (SCSv2). It contains a new scanning method which allows for detection of machines infected with the recent Conficker version (D or E, depending on the naming scheme - the tool calls it D). Although the patch to the vulnerable function NetpwPathCanonicalize() was updated in the new variant, the RPC response codes for specially crafted requests are still different for infected machines.

Joe Stewart from the Conficker Working Group has created an eye chart that allows for online identification of Conficker B and C infections. The idea of trying to load content from sites that are blocked by Conficker is really smart.

As you know, bad things are going to happen on April 1st: people will be sending out emails to their friends, telling silly jokes and putting MTAs under a higher load. Besides that (but not quite that bad), Conficker will activate its domain name generation routine to contact command-and-control servers. We have been researching this piece of malware recently, with a focus on how to detect Conficker-infected machines. Felix and I had a discussion with Dan Kaminsky about the possibilities to actively detect Conficker and wrote a scanner for this task.